Inside AJC

Huge distribution facility pitched for Gwinnett site The proposed facility near Stone Mountain would be 2.5 million square feet It could employ as many as 1,800 people Documents filed with the state of Georgia suggest the facility would be worth $200 million The company behind the proposal is unknown However, media reports have suggested Amazon is searching for a site in the Atlanta area The proposal is on the agenda for the planning commission’s August meeting

He declined Tuesday to specifically address rumors that the mysteriously named “Project Rocket” could, in fact, be the future home of roughly a 2.5-million-square-foot fulfillment center for e-commerce giant Amazon — and something like 1,800 employees.

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“You have to think, if you get that kind of building and you get that kind of number of jobs, that’s what drives the economy,” said Brooks, whose CID represents business owners up and down the U.S. 78 corridor, from Snellville to the DeKalb County line.

“The name of who it is is far less relevant to me than the end product, the end result of what it’s gonna be. We get those kind of jobs down there, anywhere in the county, and anywhere in this region, it’s significant.”

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To be clear, a specific number of jobs has not been provided for the code-named project that would be built on the 2100 block of West Park Place Boulevard, on a wooded lot south of U.S. 78 and inside the CID’s boundaries. But plans submitted to the county and to the state call for around 1,800 employee parking spaces and more than 200 truck spaces.

Anywhere near 1,800 jobs would make whoever’s behind “Project Rocket” one of Gwinnett County’s largest private employers.

County officials and other people tied to the project have remained mum on the site’s possible future tenant.

The Amazon rumors come from reports that the retailer has been searching for a site to build a new Atlanta-area fulfillment center, where workers pack and ship customer orders.

The “Project Rocket” documents submitted this month to Gwinnett County’s planning commission ask for a zoning variance that would allow the construction of an 80-foot-tall building. The maximum building height allowed under the property’s current “light industrial” zoning classification is 45 feet.